(Washington) A Belgian cargo plane leaving New York had to turn around and return to John F. Kennedy International Airport because a horse escaped from its stall, American media reported Tuesday.
Citing an air traffic control recording, ABC News reported that the horse managed to get loose last Thursday evening, within half an hour of takeoff. The plane was already around 9500 m above sea level.
The pilot of the Air Atlanta Icelandic Boeing 747 then requested permission to return to New York, with the crew unable to ensure the safe return of the horse to its stall.
“We don’t have a flight problem, but we have to go back to New York because we can’t get the horse back under lock and key,” the pilot says in a recording posted on YouTube.
The pilot also requests that a veterinarian be present for the landing.
The plane had to drop some 20 tons of fuel over the Atlantic before it could land.
He then resumed his flight shortly after and landed in Liège in Belgium the following morning, according to data from the specialist site FlightRadar24.